Andy Murray left Wimbledon a defeated but not dejected man last night. Having conceded that he had been completely outplayed by Rafael Nadal in his straight-sets defeat to the Spaniard on Centre Court yesterday, the 21-year-old vowed to return to the Championships a better player.

"He was hitting the ball so close to the line it made it difficult for me to get a rhythm," said Murray, who was beaten 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in just under two hours by the No2 seed. "You've got to try and hang on in there against someone like Nadal but I had no chance on his serve, which was a shame.

"But overall it's been a really positive tournament for me. The match against [Richard] Gasquet is one of the best matches I've ever played in and having got to my first ever grand slam quarter-final I'm now going to be back in the top 10 at the end of this week, which is something I felt like I was good enough to do.

"This was definitely the best Wimbledon I've had so far and I'm sure next year I'll be able to do even better, which is going to take a lot of hard work."

He will now take a few days off before preparing for the hard-court season and, latching on to further positives, he believes he can make an even greater impact at the US Open next month. "I feel more comfortable playing on the American hard courts; it's still my favourite surface," he said. "The US Open has always been the one that I felt gave me my best opportunity of winning a grand slam."

Nadal described his performance against Murray as the best of his grass-court career and, having lost in the past two finals here, both times to Roger Federer, he now has his sights firmly set on claiming a first Wimbledon title. "I have to play very well if I want to win this tournament, and I am playing well," he said. "I hope it is enough."

The 22-year-old will face either Arnaud Clément or Rainer Schüttler in the semi-finals tomorrow. The match between the Frenchman and the German on Court One was postponed last night because of bad light and will resume this afternoon with the score tied at one set each.